As many as nine in 10 visas issued to skilled immigrants to work in Australia may be fraudulent, according to confidential Department of Immigration files that expose rampant visa and migration fraud.

Documents from 2008 to 2013 leaked to Fairfax Media, which publishes The Australian Financial Review, consistently show far greater rates of migration fraud than has been publicly revealed and warnings that the department is failing to combat it.

A 2010 report states that “evidence uncovered to date indicates that fraud within the general skilled migration program is extensive with estimates at around 90 per cent . . . [or] more than 40,000 suspect visa applications lodged per year for the last three years".

AFR
AFR

The report says limited resources restrict the department’s ability to fix the problem. A February 2013 report about the agency’s declining capacity to investigate fraud against its own programs was written by immigration official and former assistant director of investigations Wayne Sievers.

He fled Kenyan counterterrorism officials using an Australian passport in 2010. But the departmental file shows a 2009 investigation into the cell’s activities was “deemed low priority and ceased due to a lack of resources".

Another file describes a crime ­network involving a facilitator with ­suspected Pakistan terrorist links and “migration agents, employers and education providers who are linked to a significant level of organised fraud and crime".

The network was never properly probed, allowing many of its members to continue to operate, including federal government licensed agents.

The files also reveal:

• Tens of thousands of immigration fraudsters are free after being assisted by migration crime networks that exploit weaknesses in working, student, family and humanitarian visa programs, including loopholes that have left the department sometimes “generating the fraud".

• The department is “responsible for granting a record number of student visas to people who may not be considered genuine students as well as granting permanent residence to skilled migration applicants who do not have the appropriate skills being claimed".

• In 2013, department chiefs were warned the agency’s investigations arm had collapsed, risking “the integrity of its programs and ultimately national security".

In 2012, immigration officials assessing Afghan applications noted fraud is ‘‘business as usual". They also noted the “considerable concern" about the department’s inability to counter it.

A 2010 report into a Somali people-smuggling network stated that despite evidence pointing to multiple breaches of the Criminal Code and Migration acts, the department had secured only one minor prosecution. “Media attention and three [prime minister briefings] on this issue have not been enough for the government to address this situation," the immigration file states.

A 2009 report states that the “student visa program is failing", “the general skilled migration program is failing" and the falsifying of qualifications was “prolific".

Well-placed sources said while policy changes, including an overhaul of the student visa system in 2010 and new anti-fraud rules, have made it harder to rort some visa types, there has been no effort to repair the decline in the immigration’s investigation arm.

Monash University immigration expert Bob Birrell said the revelations expose a “massive double standard" involving successive governments cracking down on boat arrivals while ignoring migration fraud and rorting by people arriving by plane.

“The debate has been dominated by the boat people issue. It’s about time it turned to what really is – an even more serious issue, which is this vastly excessive overall [visa] program and lack of attention to managing it," he said.

Immigration Department insiders said investigation failures would likely worsen with the merger of the Immigration and Customs departments into a new Australian Border Force in 2015 because of corresponding budget cuts and uncertainty as the new agency adjusts.